Times Crossword 25,499 - Second Championship Qualifier

Solving Time: Traditionally we don't discuss these, for the qualifying competition. Disclosing your time will merely give others either a probably unjustified sense of optimism, or an unhelpful gloomy feeling. Suffice it to say that this follows in a long line of qualifiers which are far easier than you are likely to meet on the day, should you progress so far.

I am now in Hendaye, France, on the Atlantic coast of France near the Spanish border, if all has gone according to plan with my travel arrangements and also with Livejournal's diarising capability. See you all again in August, or thereabouts. If you are curious to see if I have reached the Mediterranean, or instead fallen off a mountain, look for Jerry Whitmarsh, Maidstone, on Facebook. All friends welcome

I have rather riffled through the blog, as the crossword is a week old now. Any questions, do please ask and I'm sure they will be answered..


cd = cryptic definition, dd = double definition, rev = reversed, anagrams are *(--), homophones indicated in ""

ODO means the Oxford Dictionaries Online

Across
1	bohemian - *(HIM + AN OBE)
5	apical - A + PIC + A L. A clue that relies pretty much on the solution being and unfamiliar word
9	staccato - *(ACT + ACT + SO)
10	linnet - L(ARGE) + IN NET
12	latin - LA + TIN
13	enactment - a cd, referring to the House of Commons. Though the Queen's approval and that of the HoL are needed as well, so I'm told.
14	bootstrapped - hotel worker = BOOTS + got into net = TRAPPED. I will let the ODO define the word, which I confess I was surprised to find in a Times cryptic, though no doubt I shouldn't have been: a technique of loading a program into a computer by means of a few initial instructions which enable the introduction of the rest of the program from an input device.
18	apothecaries - A + POT + HE CAR(R)IES
21	coup d'etat - C(OMPANY) + *(UP TO DATE). I cannot rid myself of the feeling that cluing "d'etat" as (5) is wrong.. I know it is the Times convention, and I know if you clue it as (1'4) it may give the game away.. but still. Just wrong, however you dress it up.
23	toast - S(ON) in TO A T
24	skiing - I in S KING
25	locution - copper = CU in LOTION
26	sitars - India on radio = I in STARS, one of which the late lamented George Harrison surely was. Neat clue
27	deck hand - neat (but easy) cd
Down
1	basalt - AB rev. + SALT. Why AB, and not AS, means "able seaman," is a mystery to me..
2	hearty - HEART + Y(OU)
3	macintosh - a neatly hidden clue
4	authenticity - article = THE in relative = AUNT, + I CITY
6	paint - P AIN'T. Another curious word, ain't. If you are going to say "ai" instead of "am," why bother to be so particular as to put in the apostrophe?
7	contempt - CONTEST, with S = second replaced by MP, a "successful runner."
8	latitude - cd. This is a most peculiar clue. Why pick on poor Ecuador? It is notably democratic (voting is actually compulsory!) and there are a number of South American countries with smaller latitudinal geographical measurement. Notably Chile.. I think it likely the setter has confused the two, the latter being so obviously thin, in proportion to its length. Or I missed something.
11	masterstroke - (ANAGRA)M, + R + OK in *(A SETTER'S)
15	awestruck - A + "royal I" = WE + S TRUCK
16	Caucasus - since = AS in CAUCUS
17	populist - report = POP + U + LIST
19	maxima - saw = MAXIM + A
20	stoned - dd
22	donor - N(AME) in DOOR